We discuss how the combination of experimental observations and rapid modeling has enabled to improve understanding of the tokamak ramp-down phase in ASDEX Upgrade. A series of dedicated experiments has been performed, to disentangle the effect of individual actuators like plasma current, auxiliary heating and plasma shaping. Optimized discharge termination strategies with increased margin with respect to radiative and vertical stability limits are proposed and tested in experiment. Radiative collapse of the edge Te profile after the HL back-transition is avoided by initially maintaining auxiliary heating during L-mode, showing beneficial effects even after the auxiliary heating is turned off. The capability of the RAPTOR code to model the time evolution of the internal inductance has been validated, including the effect of a change in the Ip ramp-down rate and the HL transition timing. The reduction of caused by rapid compression of the plasma cross-section has been quantitatively recovered in simulations. Successful modeling of the time evolution is essential to optimize ramp-down scenarios for future fusion reactors, for which vertical stability and power balance control will be more challenging.
DIII-D research advancing the physics basis for optimizing the tokamak approach to fusion energy